Love This Place

What a week and a half!  We worked in Jerusalem Monday-Wednesday wherever we were needed, which mainly meant working in the Children’s Home.  We were busy once again feeding the kids, engaging them in play, and trying to encourage communication.  In case you were wondering these children are amazing and make me smile everyday (even if its a scary smile haha)! 

Then Thursday was our day off, we went to 4 a.m. adoration and mass and then spent the day at the beach and visited the craft market. 

On Friday and Saturday we ran “summer school” at My Father’s House and loved it!  We have such an awesome group of kids there that surprise us with their knowledge every day. 

 Last week was great because we got to see spend a lot of our time with the short term group because we rode on their bus with them.  We also got to hang out as a “Medium Term” group quite often this week: Mandy, Kathryn, Charcey, Ben, and Dominic.  We’ve all really bonded, here’s a pic of our happy blended family with Natalia as our mom J (she is the amazing director of missions and had us over for dinner both Friday and Saturday night). 

We met Dominic two weeks ago, and we’ve had fun with him ever since!  We welcomed Ben (far left) last Saturday, he’s an old pro, he volunteered with MSC for a year in the past!  And then Charcey joined us last Sunday J!  We’ve had so much fun together and in a short period of time have become really close!  Dominic had to leave Saturday so we had a get together Friday evening before he left, and we miss him already!

Every week there is a short term group that stays for a week and primarily they do physical labor and play with the kids from different apostolates.  Each group we’ve met have all been very different but awesome and it’s been an amazing experience to meet so many new people from all over (we’ve had Pittsburg, Atlanta, New York, and now South Carolina).  We were really bummed we didn’t get to say goodbye to our short term group this week because they were in mass before we left for work, but we came home from work to a table full of goodies and a really sweet note from all of them!  I’m excited to keep in touch with them and possibly look for advice from them if I want to look into organizing a short term group (hint hint if anyone is interested J).  And then another short term group started with us on Saturday, a really big group of 22 this week!  

On Sunday we walked with 15 kids to the church down the street.  Their mass is so wonderful (a little on the long side – this week was 1.5 hours, last week was 2.5 hours), I’ve never seen a greater demonstration of faith as seeing the people who live in this extremely poor community come together in their Sunday best to sing their thanksgiving. 

After mass Mandy, Kathryn, Ben, and I got a taxi drive up to “Strawberry Hills”.  It is a hotel and spa on top of the mountain and honestly one of the most peaceful and beautiful places I’ve ever been (I took 82 pictures there!).  It was so relaxing and nice to feel refreshed! 

We came home and I was excited to hang out with the kids from Sophie’s because it’s been such a busy week we’ve barely seen them.  I really enjoyed just sitting with them and feeding them dinner.  I was able to sit with one of the kids and look at a coloring book with him and I couldn’t get over how he was trying to use full sentences to have a conversation with me about the pictures (if you’ve ever taught a kid with special needs you can understanding how special moments like these are!).  Then one of the workers arrived who is one of the kindest and most devoted men I’ve ever met,  some nights he comes in just to help feed the kids dinner even if he isn’t on security duty that night.  The child I was sitting with yelled “My Peter!” and went running to him as soon as he saw him.  Then the two of them went hunting for frogs together because that was the picture we were looking at J, what an awesome father figure for these kids!  I got to listen to them sing their nighttime songs and say good night to all of them, which made my day! 

Then the perfect ending to a great day was having the privilege of watching an old video that Ben took of a current resident.  This resident is one of the most amazing men I’ve met.  He is in his late 30’s and lays in a wheelchair that is actually an old lawn chair rigged with wheels.  I’ve only spoken to him for a few short minutes but it is quickly apparent that there is something truly special about him.  If you didn’t know any better you would think he just lays there all day, can’t speak, and just fades into the background.  But if you take the time to speak to him you’ll never be the same.  I learned so much in the five minute interview that Ben showed us.  The resident explained that he is so grateful for everything that he has (mind you he has been completely abandoned by all family members, has very little control over the activities he participates in on a daily basis, and he has no possessions to his name), but he has his faith.  He eloquently explains that he is one of the lucky ones because he can tell people what he wants and he can tell someone if he doesn’t feel well.  He expressed his sorrow for his friends at his apostolate that can’t speak and who become frustrated and then act out because they can’t communicate.  He explained that he doesn’t like if there is tension in the room and just wants everyone to get along.  He was asked if he needed anything else from Mustard Seed and his response was that there is nothing that he needs because if there is no one there for him to talk to he can always talk to Jesus; and Jesus understands everything he needs!  He then proceeded to explain that everyone at his apostolate is his friend.  I wish I could share this video with you so that you could see what I mean but take my word it is truly amazing the wisdom, love, faith, and understanding that this resident conveys.  He made me think about all the blessings I have in my life that I take for granted.  The other day he told me it was going to be a great day because they were going to move his chair so he could spend some time under a tree, can you imagine that sense of gratitude?! 

There are many days where I feel like I'm not doing enough because we're just assisting where needed and the resources and knowledge in a third world country are so limited.  I've had some moments where I've felt truly helpless.  But my lovely sister Ali wrote a quote in a card for me and I love it: “I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do” – Edward Everett Hale.  Definitely keeping this in mind!

I’ve learned so much from these residents and I will never and can never forget the amazing experiences that I’ve had!  As you all know my parents are awesome and my dad sent me a song the other day that describes the experience very accurately.

I Saw What I Saw

Thanks for taking the time to check in!  I'm going to try to blog more often, but our internet is very sporadic so I'll try my best!  I miss everyone and I appreciate all of your support! 

Love, Christina